George Bowering, Canada’s first poet laureate, was born in the Okanagan Valley and schooled on the West Coast and in Montreal. A distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor and historian, known for his discerning wit and irreverent humour, he has authored more than eighty books, which include works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography and young adult titles. His writing has also been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese and Romanian. After serving as an aerial photographer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Bowering attended the University of British Columbia, where he earned a B.A. in History and an M.A. in English. He is one of the founders—along with Frank Davey, Fred Wah, Daphne Marlatt and Jamie Reid—of the avant-garde poetry and poetics magazine TISH. George has taught at the University of Calgary, the University of Western Ontario and Simon Fraser University.